Connectivity and cost control are growing concerns impacting software development

The complexity of today's embedded devices and systems has escalated accross
all industries, coupled with a growing requirement for connectivity and
mobility. According to VDC's 2012 Software and Systems Development Survey, 58%
of embedded and enterprise/IT developers expect their projects to require some
form of web connectivity within the next two years. This growing
interconnectivity with other devices and support systems forces requirements
and resources into consideration fortheir designs, as well as heightening the
concern and potential impact of security vulnerabilities.

Meanwhile, global market pressures to develop and introduce products quickly
while controlling costs continue unabated. The pressure to deliver more
advances, faster, opens the door for increased risk of software defects that
impact quality and security. This scenario is ever more critical given the
clear trend for software to account for a greater proportion of functionality,
emerging as the primary agent for Model-based software testing differentiation
and resource investment for tools many organizations.

Note: Percentages sum to over 100% due to multiple responses and not
all responses options depicted above.

Respondents to our 2012 Software and Systems Development Survey reported their
organizations:

Spend over 40% of their total project development costs on software
engineering and tools, and;

Attribute greater percentage of end product/project value to software
(36%), than to silicon (25%) or mechanical (23%) components on their current
project.

Strategic Issues, Drivers & Trends

Impact on quality the most important selection criteria for static analysis, dynamic, and model-based test tools

Most Important Factor in Selecting ATVT Used on Current Project,
Segmented ByTestTool Type(Percent of Respondents)

Development Pressures Encourage ATVT Use

Automated test and verification tools (ATVT) have emerged as one of the
methods increasingly depended upon to ensure alignment to regulatory or
internal process requirements and to catch errors or vulnerabilities earlier
in the development lifecycle.

Organizations are held responsible forthe overall quality of their end
product, including components received from outside sources. It is no surprise
then, that respondents to VDC's 2012 Software and System Development Survey
commonly selected “Impact on Quality” as the most important
selection criteria for Static, Dynamic, and Model-based test tools.

With the acceleration of software content growth expected to persist, we
believe that the evaluation and adoption of ATVT will increasingly be regarded
as critical for quality assurance and as an important instrument for remaining
competitive. The potential costs for software defects in embedded devices,
especially those in safety critical applications, are too severe to leave
addressed by manual processes or chance.

Market Segmentation, Estimates & Forecasts

Finding defects earlier in the development lifecycle a key benefit to ATVT use

VDC's research verifies that automated testing tool use increases the
frequency of defect detection in current projects. More importantly, the
findings confirm that engineers using testing tools are more likely to find
vulnerabilities and defects earlier in the development cycle than nonusers of
the tools.

Our research demonstrates engineering groups are using static analysis tools
more frequently earlier in the development process than traditional manual or
dynamic tests are typically executed. The results of Development Survey imply
engineers recognize that static analysis tools can be effective at ensuring
that software validation takes place as early in the lifecycle as possible,
thereby reducing overall development costs.

We believe tool suppliers should promote overall development process rather
than trying to replace traditional QA or security audit testing processes and
tools. By supplementing testing methods already in place with a technology
that helps find and fix defects early in development during the coding phase,
the QA and security audit processes become more effective and efficient.